Solo4114
Master Member
I think there's few things behind this.
First, when the prequels came out, they were IT. There would never be ny more Star Wars again, as far as anyone knew at the time. By contrast, with Disney/LFL at the helm, we all know that Star Wars films and TV shows and stuff are like buses: you know there's gonna be another one in due course. So, there's less of a sense of "OMG, they HAVE to get this right!!!"
Second, I think that the whipsawing style of the ST is part of the issue. The PT, for better or worse, has a sort of consistent thru-line. Although the tone shifts from lighter to darker, the style of how all of that is relayed is pretty consistent. Lucas' approach to storytelling is largely the same throughout. His weaknesses remain the same, and his strengths remain the same. With the ST, given that you had two different directors with very, very different storytelling styles, it barely feels like a single, consistent trilogy. The two bookend chapters feel wildly different from the middle chapter in terms of how they tell their stories, how the stories hold together, how moments hit, what kinds of things the directors focus on, etc. As a result, the ST is very much a mixed bag. Some people love the bookends, some people love the middle chapter, some people kinda like all aspects of it but maybe prefer one approach to the other, but I know very few people who lovelovelove all three equally, the same way.
There's also the aspect that I think people could have burned out on the fighting after TLJ. That movie was incredibly divisive, even moreso than TFA was, and I think it just...sapped people's energy. Folks who like it are tired of defending it to folks who hate it. Folks who hate it still hate it and wrote off most of the ST as a result.
Finally, I think that TROS is....really not very good as a final chapter. It feels very thrown together when you sit back and think about it. It has a whole bunch of moments that feel nice while you're watching it, but which, afterwards, you can only dimly remember. And that, I think, is because it's not really...a coherent story. It's more a series of stuff happening and hitting various beats because this is where you hit the beat, not because there's anything intrinsic to the story that requires it to happen then. (And that doesn't even address the whole "undercutting big emotional moments a few minutes after they happen" aspect). I could go on here, but from my perspective, JJ's films feel like big budget fan films, full of the same myopic vision of what Star Wars is that you'd expect from people who can't think beyond endlessly reiterating what came before.
End result, whereas the PT generated extreme reactions (love or hate), the ST -- now that it's all done -- engenders more of a "meh" response. I "like" it overall. I don't "love" it. I love that it has a female protagonist because it makes Star Wars that much more accessible to my daughter. But I wish it had more of a coherent style to it. If JJ had done the whole thing, I think....well, I think I would've felt much the same. I don't really like JJ's style. I think he's a weak storyteller. He crafts moments, not narratives, and that ultimately hurts his films because it leaves them feeling like a series of barely connected events that you mostly forget, with a few highlights that are emotional scenes, but ultimately which become disposable. They say nothing one way or the other, and therefore they don't engender any especially strong feelings one way or the other. By contrast, I LOVE TLJ. I love the challenge it makes to Star Wars as a franchise, the opportunity it creates for how those stories are told to grow, and the degree of care it takes with its characters...but it's just one film smack in the middle of a rollercoaster ride. It's like you jumped on Space Mountain, and in the middle of it, the ride slows down dramatically, and you get a philosophy discussion. It's really jarring, and just as it's starting to get interesting and you're adjusting to Philosophy Mountain....WHOOSH!! You're off again and it's twists and turns and holy **** what the hell did I just watch?! And then it's done. So you leave, and you say "Huh. So....that was a thing," and go on about your business.
That's the thing about rollercoaster rides. You remember the overall vibe of it, maybe one or two cool moments, but for the most part, it's a blur and you forget it and move on. Those are the films JJ makes. He's good at making them. But they're disposable fluff. Cotton candy. Bright, attractive, made of nothing but pure sugar, and forgotten moments after they're consumed.
